Second Chances
by WreckItRalphFan
Summary: When her Dad starts to fall for Madeline Winnie doesn't want anything to do with it. She wants everything to be the way it used to be; just her, Lizzy, Dad, and Mom. But she has to learn that life is full of ups and downs, but no matter what everyone deserves a second chance.
1. Chapter 1

**WreckItRalphFan: This story takes place just after the books series, so Winnie is 15. Enjoy! ;)**

Chapter 1

"Winnie, are you okay? Winnie!" I knew who it was before I even looked up. It was _her._ I glanced up, realizing that I was sitting at the kitchen table with my head resting in the palms of my hands. I was right, it was Madeline Edison. She had been coming over so often lately, and she was really getting on my nerves. I gave her a very unconvincing smile and wished that she would just go away and leave me and my family alone.

"Winnie, is something wrong?" She asked in an almost a sickening sweet tone, it made me want to hurl. She was fine as far as people go, but she had started to take over the Willis household. I don't know what had made me more upset with her at that moment. The fact that she never knocked when she came over anymore, or that Dad had been going out with her, _a lot._

"Nope. I'm fine." I lied. _Like I would tell her what's wrong, she's half the problem. _

She almost looked worried, "You sure? Do you want to talk about it? Maybe I could help?"

_Yah Right. _I thought, I looked down to see my math book sitting in front of me. I realized that this was the easy way out of talking to Dad's _friend_. "I was just thinking." I said motioning towards the open book. It was the truth though, I had been thinking but it was _not _about math.

A tiny voice came from behind Madeline, "Buddy and Towaco?" It was Mason. He was _definitely _her better half.

"No, Mason, just Buddy." I sighed, that was one of the big things that had been bothering me lately. Hawk was moving to Florida with her dad. She was taking Towaco with her. Her Dad came over yesterday to pick up the Appaloosa. Hawk had promised to either call or email me through the pet help line every day, and she told me that she would come home for holidays. It didn't make me feel any better, nothing would be the same without her. She was the best friend that I have ever had, next to Catman and Barker. It was going to be hard not seeing her every day at school.

There was the other problem. Without Towaco boarding in our barn I'm going to have to find a way to make money for Nickers' and Buddy's grain and hay for the winter. I would never make enough money answering the emails for the pet helpline, so I'm going to have to find another job. I just hope that the Spiddles will find a job for me somehow. It is definitely no secret that Summer and I don't get along. I don't get along with Richard too well either. Let's just say that if Stable-mart weren't the only place in all of Ashland Ohio that I could get a job at, it would be the last place in the world that I would want to step foot in. My heart ached for those horses every time I thought about those cramped stalls, and the way that the Spiddles and their staff treated them.

Madeline tore her gaze away from mason and glanced back at me. There was a look of concern in her eyes. I stood up so quickly that my chair almost toppled over. "Gotta go, Nickers is waiting for me. Dads in his workshop, I think he's having trouble with the Freeze-O-Wave." He had been spending countless hours lately trying to reinvent one of his previous failures.

I wheeled around and sped past them heading towards the screen door. Mason was now staring intently at a juice stain in the middle of the floor, if he hadn't slipped away into his own world I would have taken him out to see Buddy. Madeline was mumbling something, "I told Jack that he was going to have to loosen the…" But I wasn't about to stay and listen to her inventor talk any longer, I darted out the door as if the house were on fire.

At this moment I needed to be with Nickers. My relationship with God has been getting better, it's nothing special, but at least I have a relationship. But when I am around that amazing Arabian I feel like I could tell God anything. Mom used to say "In the beginning God created heaven and earth and horses." I know that this is true, especially when I am with my own amazing horse, I could tell God anything. That is what I needed right at this moment.

As I neared the barn, weaving in between the works-in-progress that continue to scatter the yard, I hear the most heavenly sound. It is the same sound that my horse got her name from, a soft nicker. "Hello to you too, Nickers!" I cooed. "You ready for a ride?" She answered with another one of those wonderful noises.

-0-0-0-0-0-

We rode as one through the pasture until Lizzy appeared by the fence, I rode up at a full trot. "Winnie Willis! Get that Wild Thing away from me! You know that those horses scare me!" She squealed, making me cringe when she called my gorgeous Nickers "Wild Thing". "Winnie, oh! You would never guess what happened at school today. Gerry looked out the window and saw; you're never going to believe it, a Northern Spring Peeper! It was so amazing, he was sitting right there on the window pane! It has been getting cooler out in the evenings now so I would never have guessed that he would have been out! He was so cute and ….."

"Lizzy!" I said it a little louder than I should have; I felt Nickers tense up under me. I Tried again, this time lowering my voice "Lizzy, why did you come out here?"

"Oh yah, Dad wants us to go inside right now. He has to talk to us about something." I couldn't believe it. We had been out here talking, well Lizzy was talking, and Dad is inside waiting for us. However, she seemed unfazed "… I'm making my tuna casserole tonight, but I don't think that he is going to stay. We are going…"

I was getting curious and a little worried, dad never called us together just to talk to us. I slid off of Nickers, and rushed past Lizzy before she could continue talking. When I walked into the house I was shocked to see Dad in his suit. Not his astronaut work suit, but his good suit that I have only seen him wear about twice before. The same one that he had wore to mom's funeral almost three years ago.

He smiled at us showing his perfect teeth, "Winnie, Lizzy, come sit down." He motioned towards the kitchen table. I sat down anticipating what he was going to say.

I looked over to see Mason sitting at the couch. I thought that Madeline had left, and I didn't see their van in our driveway. "Dad, is Madeline here, I don't think that I saw her car?"

"Actually that is what I want to talk to you about." He sounded nervous, "Lizzy is going to watch Mason. Madeline left, actually she went to her house to get ready."

Lizzy and I both looked confused. "What is she getting ready for Dad?" Lizzy asked, but I think that we both knew deep down what was coming next.

"Well… I….I mean we….. well, Madeline and I." I don't think that I have ever seen dad so tongue tied before. "What I'm trying to say is that we have been together for a year now."

My heart sank, "Dad." I said it a little more forcefully than I should have, he looked a bit startled. My temper was getting the best of me, _again. _I took a deep breath before trying again, "what are you getting at?"

"I am going to take Madeline out for a date." He said it so fast and quiet that I almost didn't hear him, but I knew where this was going. He had his head in his palms now. He looked up at us combing his fingers through his hair making it stand up everywhere. "I like Madeline….. a lot"

I couldn't believe it. I jumped up so fast that my chair toppled over, tears were threatening to spill over but I didn't care. "How could you!" I screamed at him, I didn't care. For once Lizzy was speechless and she looked as if she might cry, but I knew that she was because of me. My eyes began to cloud over to the point that I couldn't see, I lowered my voice to barely a whisper. "Do you not care about mom?" my voice cracked much more than usual, it didn't help that I was chocking back salty tears.

"Winnie, I… I love her." I didn't want to hear anymore. I turned and tripped over the chair. "Winnie! Are you okay?" He sounded worried, but it only made me even madder at him.

I got up off of the floor and ran for the door, it slammed behind be but I didn't look back. I could hear Lizzy and Dad calling me but I continued going until I stumbled into the barn blurry eyed. I sobbed, "Come on Nickers, were getting out of here."

**WreckItRalphFan: Thank you so much for reading this. Please review and tell me what you think. :) I promice that the next chapter will be much better. :D**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I wiped my tears on my shirt sleeve as I looked into the dark barn, allowing my eyes to adjust. _God, why do things have to change like this? Why did mom have to die? Why does dad have to fall in love with Madeline? Why?_

I walked over to Nickers stall and opened the door. I put her hackamore on and led her into the paddock before mounting. I leaned over hugging her neck, "Come on Nickers, we're going." My already cloudy eyes began to tear up again, I trusted Nickers to keep me safe so I didn't even bother to look up. "Go!" My voice cracked as I gently squeezed her sides, she instantly started off at a trot. My eyes continued to blur over but I held on tighter because I knew what was coming up next, Nickers soared over the fence and started again at a canter as her hooves hit the ground.

She continued on, leaving the hurt behind. We began to slow down to a trot, before stopping abruptly; I looked up seeing that she had stopped in front of the Coolidge castle. The dark had completely closed in around us leaving the dilapidated old three story house looming over us ready to swallow us whole. Lizzy was right, it was getting colder out at night which just added to the eeriness of the scene before me.

I slid off of Nickers and took her reins in my hand. A gust of cold night wind blew, Nickers shied then sidestepped, that's when I saw it. A large figure- at least seven feet tall- standing in the shadow of the house, they were dressed in all black and seemed to be staring right at me.

"Who is that?" My voice was shaky and quiet as I tried to shout over the howling wind. "Who's there?"

Churchill, Rice, and several other cats flooded out from every direction as a voice came from behind us. Someone came out of the dark, it was Catman. "Lawn ornaments." He said, I don't know how long he had been there or why but I was glad that it was him.

I walked closer towards the dark figure. Only then did I see that it was a tall Santa Clause dressed up like the grim reaper. I should have known, it was October and Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge's favorite time of year for putting up their lawn ornaments.

A large raindrop landed on my head, more followed. This was going to turn into a downpour fast. I raced the lean to that Catman had insisted putting up for when Nickers and I visited. I made sure that she was comfortable before turning around and knocking into Catman. I wasn't crying anymore but even I could tell that my eyes were red and puffy. I didn't want to let Catman see that I was crying so I turned around and pretended to be interested in a patch of mud clinging to Nickers rump. I knew that he was staring at me trying to piece everything together; I turned around to face him.

He finally broke the silence, "You're gonna have to crash at my pad tonight." I knew that he was right, I couldn't possibly try to ride Nickers out in this weather. Then he did something that I didn't expect from Catman, or anyone for that matter.

He reached out and grabbed my hand in his. It felt good, very comforting, as if in that one gesture alone he told me a thousand words. It was like he was saying 'everything's going to be alright'. For the first time this night I actually made eye contact with him, his blue cat-like eyes were showing more emotion than any other person could show with just one look.

"We should go inside." He said, once again being the one to break the silence. I nodded, knowing that there was no other way. We ran to the front door and burst through dripping wet. It was only when we were both inside with the door safely closed behind us that Catman let go of my hand. I would have done anything to feel his hand in mine, it was almost enough to make me forget my current situation.

Catman left so I walked over to the red velvet couches. The inside of Coolidge castle is amazing. I slid down to the floor not wanting to get the couch wet. I pulled my knees up to my chest and closed my eyes, instantly wishing that I hadn't as my photographic memory showed a terrible picture. The one of my mom with her head against the steering wheel of our old van, blood was trickling down her forehead and her arms lay limp at her side. I tried to get the image out of my head but it was pointless. It was my fault that she was dead. It was my fault that dad was going out with Madeline and not still with mom. The Willis family's life was ruined and it was all my fault.

Rice, Catman's long-haired white cat, came over to me and began to rub against my leg purring. I sniffed realizing that I had tears in my eyes. I reached over to pet Rice and noticed Catman standing in front of me. I quickly wiped my eyes but I knew that he saw me, I didn't know how long he had been standing there.

He walked over handing me a towel; I gave him a weak smile and began to undo my extremely messy braid. By the time I was able to half-way dry my hair it had turned into a huge knotted wet pile of frizz. I could tell that this was going to take forever to untangle but decided to give it up.

Catman only had to take one look at me before saying "Far out."

"No, Catman! Not 'far out', it's terrible!" I cried, slumping down and leaning into the couch, burying my face deep into my hands.

"Chill Winnie, it's cool." Leave it to Catman to say something like that during a time like this.

_Note to self: don't expect any boy, especially Catman to understand your problems._

I wiped my eyes and sniffed for the millionth time this night, I looked at him, he didn't say a word but I answered his question anyway. "It's a really long story."

"Bart and Claire are on vacation, won some contest." He had finished drying himself off before sliding down to the floor next to me. He sat Indian style, propping his head up with his hands, and staring intently at me as if to say _"It's just us, I've got all of the time in the world."_

I sighed and looked down at my lap; once again I didn't want to look him in the eye. I had always been able to tell Catman anything, why was it hard for me to do something as simple as look at him now? The activities of the day are catching up to me and before I know what's happening a sob escapes my lips. I'm not sure what's happening, everything is going by in a haze. I just start talking; most of what I'm saying doesn't make sense as I try to scramble the facts, my thoughts, and my feelings together. I don't know how long we've been there, and the truth is that I don't care. I finally finish, looking up at Catman with tears streaking my cheeks, "It's all my fault!" I manage to get the last part out before completely loosing it.

My heart jumps in my chest, without any warning he gently pulls me close. I continue to sob against his shoulder, "It was my fault." My voice hoarser than normal "I was the one who wanted to go out in that storm! Mom would be alive now if it weren't for me, it should have been me! " I sobbed my voice cracking. I didn't try to speak anymore, but that's when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped, turning to see M wearing a forlorn expression; I could tell that he heard everything.

**WreckItRalphFan: I hope that you enjoyed it! Please review, anything is helpfull. If you have any constructive criticism it is greatly appreciated, I will take any chance I get to improve! **

**The cover art is a drawing by me. :) I'm thinking about entering it into the fair this summer, what are your thoughts?**

**God be with you all!**


End file.
